A Fallen Angel

Angel woke in his bed. He rolled over to look at the mirror suspended above him.

What day was it today?

Oh, right. Monday. He had to go to school today.

Back to deal with the stupid Cutie Mark Crusaders, and their pathetic argument with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.

Angel was not a normal pony. As he angered, he changed. Both inside and out. The faster he angered, the more ferocious he looked, and the faster and easier he was to anger.

Right now, his mane caught fire.

"Right, keep calm, Angel. Don't want to burn the house down." He liked that name. Angel. It was so dreadfully ironic when there was a demon that raged inside him consistently. Of course, not many ponies got hurt when he got mad.

Not that he wasn't dangerous, it was just easy to see if he's in a bad mood. He was actually quite dangerous. The last time he was enraged, he damn near leveled Ponyville.

He had also made Twilight Sparkle very jealous.

The fact that at eleven he could almost level Ponyville had to count for something.

Now he was fifteen. The whole town tried to make sure he was happy. One day they went so far to even put a gag on Pinkie Pie.

Angel liked Pinkie, though. For one thing, she always had a cupcake for him. And she was the only one besides his parents who treated him like a regular pony. Even if he was mad

Angel heard his mother calling from the kitchen. "Angel, your breakfast is almost ready."

"Alright, Mom. Coming."

As far as he was concerned, he had the best parents ever. For one thing, they regarded everything, even murder, with an air of casual nonchalance. And his father always had the best renditions of the Lunar Revolution battles. They both had so much knowledge, Angel wondered why he hadn't gotten homeschooled, instead. He wouldn't have to put up with the schoolyard crap, then.

He walked into the kitchen, dragging his saddlebags. His eyes slowly started to churn out smoke.

His mother never missed a transition "What's wrong, my little Angel?"

"I'm not looking forward to school today, Mom."

His dad's uncanny hearing struck again. He called from the adjacent living room. "What's wrong, Melody?"

"Your son is depressed, and doesn't want to go into school."

His father walked in. Angel had always wondered why both his parents walked on two-legs instead of four. Outside they walked on all fours, just like everyone else.

"Come on, kid." Kid. Despite the meaning as a slanderous and insulting term, for some reason it made Angel feel a sense of familiarity whenever he heard it. "What's up?"

Angel looked imploringly at his father. "Dad, I don't want to go to school. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are both spoiled brats, and I can't stand the fact that Apple Bloom and her friends always fight with them." Angel paused to take a breath, and saw his hooves turn dark. "I just can't stand them. And it doesn't help that Cheerilee doesn't really do much but egg them on anyway."

His father raised a hoof to silence Angel. "Kid, look. You've only got one more week of school. Then it's off to Flight Camp for you to learn how to fly." His father shifted in his seat, pointing a hoof at him. "You can suck it up like a Killer until then."

Angel pouted, but he knew better than to argue. Instead, he did as he felt any Killer should do. Angel sat up straight, looked his father in the eye, and said "Yes, Sir."

"Good pony. Have you got your hat?"

Angel pulled out the tuque in question. "It's always in my bag, Sir." Angel wasn't sure why, but when he called his father "Sir." it always put him in a better mood. But whenever he asked if his father served in the army, Paen always changed the subject.

Angel crammed the hat on top of his mane, making it go askew. Luckily, his father didn't mind Angel having long hair. He always said "You need something to cover your horn."

Few ponies knew that Angel wasn't a pegasus. It was one of the things that made Twilight so jealous of his talent. She didn't know he had a horn.

Two ponies that had known of his horn was the spa sisters. Angel's father said they needed them to know so they could keep it trimmed to below his mane-line. They had both wanted to tell the princesses.

Angel's father must've been a good negotiator, because when he went to talk it over with them, they had perfectly agreed not to tell.

Now that he recalled it, Angel kind of wondered where Aloe had disappeared to for the week after that.

Resigning himself to having to go to school, Angel sat and thought of all the good things that could happen at school. The good news is that this was finally the last year for all five of the troublesome ponies. Then Angel would have the next few years all to himself. Well, him and his other classmates.

Then again, he was kinda dissapointed that he wouldn't be able to see any more Scootaloo. She'd been nice when he first showed up at school. His family was new to Ponyville, after just moving from Cloudsdale. She had shown him around, and even tried to get him into this "Worship Rainbow Dash" thing. She had been kinda hurt when he said he didn't really see what the big deal was about her.

He understood the Elements of Harmony perfectly well, but the ones he could fight, he was stronger than. He wasn't sure about Rainbow Dash and her "Unbeatable" speed. But he had helped her clear clouds one day. Poor pony didn't fly for a week. She just went around for the next week muttering "Three seconds." Maybe Angel wasn't old enough to understand.

Applejack was pretty cool, too. He had impressed her by helping her complete the Applebuck season. Three weeks early. Between him and her, only, they had completed every single field in one day.

His parents weren't really impressed with the fact he hung out with the Elements. Being as how they were the Killer clan, Angel couldn't blame them. He knew he shouldn't be with them.

They'd always be on Celestia's side.

Angel didn't know why, but whenever he thought of the "Good" princess, he felt a huge surge of loathing. He had always liked Luna better.

When he learned that her first and only apprentice had died in a training class gone wrong, Angel had felt bad for her. Poor pony. Her apprentice had been so burnt that they hadn't been able to recognise him.

Angel quickly ate the few pancakes Melody set in front of him. Once he finished wolfing them down, it was time for him to head to the school.

"Bye Angel. Don't get too mad." Melody called to him as he walked out the front door.

"I'll try not to." Angel called back.

Anypony at a third-pony perspective would've thought that the two war-masters had mellowed with "their" new foal.

Melody had her head resting against the door. "When can he begin his initiation kills? I'm sick of him being so nice to other ponies. I want to see him with his first kill."

They'd be wrong.

"Well," Paen sat thoughtfully. "He isn't anything like Criss was. I think he would probably be pleased to kill somepony. He makes threats all the time. Maybe we could get him to start the initiation kills at flight camp."

"He seems violent enough, thank Nightmare Moon. He's our little Angel of Death." Melody said with genuine love for "her" colt.

"Yes, he is.." Paen's voice trailed off. He shook his head. "Nevertheless, I should let Nightmare Moon know how he's doing."

"Alright. It'll be sad to see him leave. We can't go with him, though. Celestia would recognise us."

"No, we can't go with him to the palace. We could, however, go see if we can bring back up the noteriety of Killer clan in Canterlot. Maybe show those Dash's a thing or two about staying loyal to the one true princess."

Paen watched as his loves' red eyes darkened. "Yes, I would dearly love to show those traitorous pegasi true loyalty."

Paen reluctantly left the room. Though he enjoyed it when his wife got malevolent, he had to call Nightmare Moon.

He entered his study and sat down at his desk. He was glad they had been able to make his old office into his new study.

He quickly glanced at his plaque, waiting ever-so-patiently for the head of "The Traitor."

Sighing, Paen reached over and slid his hoof into the groove of the phone.

A few minutes later, he had finally gotten through to the princess.

It's a good thing "Princess" Celestia likes her ponies so much, or these calls would be much harder.

"Hello? Princess Luna?"

A slightly fuzzy reply came through the line. "Yes, speaking. Who is this?"

"Your Majesty. It is doing fine.  Wondering when you'll come get it. It's going to fly over summer."

Both him and the princess knew somepony may be listening over the lines. Losing your well thought out revenge plan made ponies a little paranoid.

Thats why they talked in code. "We wonder what your favorite colour is." It was lucky that the Elements had different colour coats.

After a short pause, Paen got a slightly distorted response. "We're glad for it. We think that for one third, our favorite colour is Yellow. Just to prove if it can. The time depends on the pickup."

Paen winced. Though he didn't doubt his sons sadism, he didn't know if Angel could kill Fluttershy. Especially not as an initiation kill. But he'd have to for her to take him as her apprentice. And then there's Melody... "Will help be allowed?"

"No."

Angel felt very much like killing right now.

He was in the middle of the classroom, as usual, between Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara, listening to them throw verbal blows back and forth.

Truth was, he wasn't interested in that.

He was interested in the fact that the pen Diamond Tiara had thrown at Applebloom had hit him instead.

He was interested in the fact that the pen had broken open.

He was interested in the fact that he now was a blue polka-dot pony.

He was interested that his favorite hat was ruined.

Cheerilee must've caught the sight of the fact that Angel's hair had started to smoke, because she finally started to break up the fight. "Girls, stop it. Or you'll both stay after school."

Naturally, a blame game started up. "She started it!" Applebloom shouted, indignently.

"Did not!" Diamond Tiara retorted.

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

The entire classroom went quiet as Angel's mane caught fire. Mainly because of his habit of razing things.

Angel quietly stood up. All eyes were on him. He slowly walked over to Diamond Tiara.

Snips started leaning subconsciously towards the door.

Angel, knew he was frightening. He was one of a kind. And he always used it to his melodramatic edge.

As he reached Diamond Tiara's desk, he slammed his hat down on the table, making her jump.

"You ruined my coat." Angel whispered. Enough anger seeped into him to turn his coat black. "You ruined my hat."

"I-I-I'm sorry!" She whimpered into the top of the desk, not having enough guts to look him in the eye.

Angel threw on his saddlebags and walked out of the classroom.

Angel still hadn't calmed down by the time he reached Mane street. And it showed.

Nopony was in the streets.

Except Pinkie. "Hey, Angel!" Where'd she come from? "I felt my tail twitch, then my mane got itchy." Huh? "And I knew tail-twitch and mane-itch meant somepony needed a cupcake." No seriously, what? "And then I looked out the front door and saw nopony in the streets, which meant something scared them away. And since Scootaloo wasn't tight-rope walking, and there wasn't some weird gossip going around about a cloaked pony, I figured that must mean you were angry, and ponies were staying out of your way, and...Hey, where's your hat?"

"Oh, uh... Diamond Tiara and Apple Bloom were fighting and Diamond Tiara threw a pen, but it hit me, and broke, and now-" he said as his coat faded back to white. "-you can see I've got big pen blotches all over my coat, and my hat is completely ruined, but it's still at school."

"Oh, that sucks. You definitely need a cupcake. And a hug! Than again, who doesn't need a hug?" She thankfully dropped the sentance there. However, this did allow her to crush Angel's lungs.

Though Angel liked Pinkie, he didn't like hugging other ponies. Except his mom. But Angel put up with it. Hitting an Element of Harmony didn't go over too well.

Finally Pinkie let Angel go. "So, if you're ditching school, where are you going now?"

"Home." Angel said. Most ponies would find it weird that an adult was letting a colt ditch school, but most of the ponies in Ponyville found that there were chaotic consequences to forcing an angry Angel into something he didn't want to do.

"Oh, ok. Do you want me to walk you there?"

Angel thought about what his parents might do to the over-excitable, pink party pony. He grinned to himself.

His better judgement won out in the end. "Nah, I should be fine."

"Okie-dokie-lokie." Pinkie said over her shoulder as she trotted off.

Paen opened his front door to see his son sitting there.

"Angel, what are you doing home so early? And why is there ink on your coat?"

Hastily, Angel re-hashed the entire thing with his father.

"Hmm... Well, we'll have to go buy you a new hat." his father said, letting Angel into the house. "I have something else I want to talk to you about." Paen said.

This sounded important. "Yeah, Dad? What is it?"

"Can you tell me the most important Killer ritual?"

"Yeah, the three intiation kills." Angel said hesitantly.

"Good. Your mother and I both think it's about time you started them."

Angel blanked. "You want me to kill somepony?"

"Yes. Three someponies, if possible."

"Uh.... Ok, if you want me too, I guess." Although Angel had made threats, he was a little anxious to actually having to do it. "Can I pick who?"

"Yes, but you have to wait until the school year is over. And you have to do it discreetly."

"Ok." Angel was a little disappointed at his father misplacing his anxiety as enthusiasm.

"Do you want to go find another hat?"

"Yeah, sure, Dad." Anxious or not, Angel was pleased his father trusted him with one of the hardest Killer traditions all by himself.

"Okay, let's go."